Little Boy Blue

- Season 1

(2017)

In 2007, 11-year-old Rhys Jones is inexplicably shot dead walking home from football practice. When newly-promoted Superintendent Dave 'Ned' Kelly, leading the murder inquiry, discovers that Rhys' older brother Owen was in a gang, he suspects that Rhys was innocently, inadvertently caught up in turf warfare. Meanwhile, teenager Sean Mercer hides a gun and an anonymous caller names Mercer and two fellow gang members as the culprits. However, Ned is unable to gather sufficient evidence to charge them.

As Rhys' family attends his funeral, Mercer's friends Dean Kelly, James Yates, and Nathan Quinn all alibi each other, Yates disposing of anything to incriminate him. A bug on Yates' house leads Dave to another of their circle, Jordan Olssen, who bullies his mother Claire; Claire's statement goes some way to discredit the gang's stories, though Dave still has no clear evidence to make an arrest. A raid on the house of dim teenager Kevin Moody recovers the suspected murder weapon, and Dave gambles on him incriminating the others in exchange for immunity from prosecution...

Dave believes that he has a lead when Kevin Moody, encouraged by his sister Sandra, admits to the police that Mercer gave him the gun, but the Crown prosecutor still feels that there is insufficient evidence to proceed. Dave hopes that this will make the culprits more confident about getting away with it and steps up his pursuit. There is a setback when Claire Olssen is bullied by the killer's family and gang into giving a false alibi, so Dave is relieved when Kevin finally agrees to enter witness protection and names Mercer and his associates, thus making arrests ...

Mercer, Yates, and all the others who helped to kill Rhys Jones are held in court.